JACK SMITH

(b. 1950)

Contemporary Expressionist, Realist Painter & Portraitist

by Frank Goss and Jeremy Tessmer

Jack Smith’s paintings seek authenticity, from tender portraits of Bohemians to still lifes that celebrate the eccentric and exotic. Many of his paintings are done in black oil on copper, a medium made popular by the early Netherlandish painters.

Table Of Contents

I. Biography

Jack Smith was born in 1950. At age 16, he began his training at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan before moving to Ohio to attend Columbus College of Art and Design. He also studied for a brief time at the Instituto de Allende, at San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico. He now resides in New Mexico. Reflecting a profound knowledge of art history and and an alchemist's sense of the painting craft, contemporary painter Jack Smith has forged his own place amongst the most powerful of contemporary portraitists working in America.

Jack Smith recently received a prestigious Past Achievement Award from the Peter and Madeleine Martin Foundation for the Creative Arts, following an important solo exhibition titled, Jack Smith: The Taos Portraits at the Harwood Museum of Art at the University of New Mexico in 2004. The exhibition featured fifty portraits of Taos, New Mexico residents, executed between 2000 and 2003. The series was intended as a visual biography of this unique artistic community at the turn of the century. Smith's subjects range from the famous to the infamous -- including artists, writers, art patrons, Native peoples, and street peoples. He recently commissioned a number of private commissions for Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery in Santa Barbara, California. In addition to his continuing national exhibition schedule, Jack Smith has initiated a new project to be published by the Michigan State University Press entitled, Portrait of American Poets. The project will span a selection of thirty portraits of American poets and their work who are currently being recognized for their important contributions to the literary compass of American writing.

II. SGTV Video

"Jack Smith New and Selected Work"
Produced and Narrated by Jeremy Tessmer

For Jack Smith's second solo exhibition at Sullivan Goss, curator Susan Bush assembled a collection that shows the breath and depth of the artist's production with paintings from ten years ago to paintings that have just dried.

To watch the video click on the image on the left

III. An Analysis of the Artist's Work

Incorporating blackoil, wax, lead salts, and copper Smith's small format portraits and paintings are detailed and intimate depictions of creative individuals and charged tableaux. Smith's singular style of portraits glow with a warm inner light and present honest, straightforward images that speak of personal narratives.

Smith’s interest in miniatures developed first as a matter of convenience. In 1982, while preparing for a winter of travel in Mexico, he experienced logistical problems traveling with the larger size painting materials he was using at the time. The solution seemed to be a block of watercolor paper and casein, a milk base paint of versatile possibilities and vehement drying power. Suddenly, his paintings went from three by five feet to three by five inches.
The history of oil painting, principally centered around the Dutch schools and their development of a method called black oil painting, often executed in miniature, also captured his interest. Black oil, an oleoresin comprised of white beeswax, raw linseed oil and litharge of lead, suspends the pigment above the painting ground, which was traditionally wood panel, linen or copper plate. This medium seems to suspend the pigment, allowing light to penetrate and reflect from the surface and illuminate the imaged from behind, a sort of light from within.

The small format is an act of compression that requires the viewer to draw in close to a more intimate proximity and will, if the painting works, hopefully approach Joseph Campbell’s description of art as an “object of fascination” to engage the viewer and stop for a moment one’s busy mind.

IV. PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY

Self Portrait
2003
Oil on Copper
6 x 6 inches

Self Portrait by Jack Smith was included inTaos Portraits exhibited at the Harwood Museum in 2004. Smith has a long association with Taos beginning from the mid 1970s when he began the first of several periods in the community. After a quarter century of getting to know a wide range of local personalities he decided to paint a couple of his friends. The experience of this proved to be an exciting one and the portrait project soon expanded into dozens of paintings. This piece can be viewed at Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery in Montecito.

Portrait of Judy
2003
Oil on copper
6 x 6 inches

Portrait of Judy, is one piece and one personality that derived from the Taos Portraits. These are not commissioned works, but have come about when Smith approached people and asked them to sit for him. When posing his subjects, he asked for suggestions about how they wish to be seen. His models therefore participate in the process giving much thought on how to pose. After making initial sketches or taking photographs, Smith gets out his paints.

Portrait of Kristen Gossner
2003
Oil on copper
6 x 6 inches

Smith's Portrait of Kristen Gossner was selected by the Cornell Museum to be included in theire 2006 exhibit Eye to Eye. This exhibition, organized by Cornell's Curator of Exhibitions Luanne McKinnon, comprises a broad range of portraiture dating from c. 1561 to 2005. The earliest works are drawn from the Museum's collection, including Tintoretto's Portrait of a Gentleman of c.1580. The contemporary portraits feature works by Chuck Close, Alex Katz, Cindy Sherman, Y. Z. Kami, Richard Phillips, Jack R. Smith, William Beckman, Rebecca Campbell, Thomas Ruff, and Christopher Makos. Eye to Eye examines the powerful relationship between the gaze of the subject and the gaze of the viewer.